Saturday, January 14, 2006

Ed getting desperate?

Even if I wasn't following the election closely, I could get a pretty good idea of what party was winning just by checking out Ed and Liam's blogs. Since January 12 Ed has posted 15 times to his blog, Liam six. Both of them are fairly wordy people, but the way I read it is that Liam is increasingly confident his party is going to win, so he's posting less. Ed is sounding increasingly desperate, hence the metric ton of posts in the last two and a half days. Nearly all of the ones from Ed, by the way, having been ripping the Conservatives. Liam's tend to be more "these are the good things I think the Conservatives will do." Liam hasn't been ragging on the Liberals as much in the last few days.

Guess it would be too much like kicking a dead cat or something.

It's an interesting dichotomy.

Although I did find the poll information Ed put up on the site regarding Newfoundland and the rest of Atlantic Canada interesting. Especially in light of Dave Cochrane analysis on "On the Go" yesterday about how the riding races are going. His interpretation, talking to "insider sources" (I'm hit or miss on Dave's inside sources, just for the record. They're right more often than not. But not always, and not enough for me to feel comfortable with to take for granted) the Conservatives are comfortably ahead in the two St. John's ridings and in Avalon.

And with the announcement by Scott Simms about the Gander weather office, the rumours about how tight that race is now are apparently true. I remain highly sceptical about Labrador in play. And, sadly, Humber-St. Barbe-Baie Verte is not in play, which means Gerry Byrne is going to get back in. I agree with my good friend Craig Westcott about what a tragedy that is.

It should be an interesting last week. At some point I'll have to make my predictions about Newfoundland seat counts and the federal race as a whole. Probably next weekend.

Challenge for Ed Hollett -- I've laid out the parts where I am in disagreement with Stephen Harper (on ACOA/RDA spending, Insufficient sentencing provisions in Justice, vilifying the BQ, and other spending matters to name a few)

Do you even have it within your capacity to go outside your glandular dislike for all things "Connie" and offer some critique of the Liberal Party's policy/costing/etc. . . Or are you in full agreement with everything they've ever said (even the parts where they changed their policy)?. . .

Take a day off and let the smear/slime/sludge gun cool. Try training a critical eye on the Liberal party. Half a sentence back in early December where one of two barrells was pointed at me while the other was halfway pointed at Scott Redi doesn't really count . . . (especially since you never did answer re John Duffy). . . .

I gotta tell ya, Ed, I know you're capable of better zingers than that. There wasn't much heart in it. "You like Liam better than me" (paraphrased, of course) is kind of weak. Then again, with the poll numbers the way they are, I can understand the lack of zip on the put down.

Besides, it's gotta be tiring be that angry all the time and not getting anywhere with it.

The thing is, Ed, I normally would disagree politcally with Liam. I loathe Brian Mulroney with a firey passion. I spent four years with the Muse in the early 90s. Not many conservatives there. Politically, I tend to lean Liberal or NDP.

But that's how bad the Liberals are right now; I'm agreeing with a Tory. A purge is needed. It was needed when the Tories were ousted in '93. It was needed when the Liberals were ousted in '84.

Go into exile for a couple of years. Pick a new leader. Get organized and revitalized. Purge the corrupt elements. Then come back in 2-4 years when everyone hates the Conservatives again. Odds are it won't take long for Harper to really start annoying people. I give it a month.

This is fundimentally a Liberal country. We don't elect conservatives because we love them or their policies. We elect them when we're so pissed off with the Liberals that we can't stand the sight of them anymore.